Bristol University has launched a fund called the University of Bristol Enterprise Fund that will provide capital to the institution’s spinouts.
The fund will be managed by investment firm Parkwalk Advisors and will offer tax reliefs to individual investors that purchase shares in these spinouts through the UK government’s Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme.
The fund will focus its investments on technological and scientific spinouts from Bristol University and its incubator, a part of the Setsquared network.
The fund will open to investors in January 2016.
Bristol University’s notable spinouts include Inductosense, a company founded last year that is creating wireless sensors to detect cracks and defects and has raised £489,000 in funding, and Ultrahaptics, a company founded in 2013 that develops technology for users to receive tactile feedback from computers using ultrasound and recently secured $15.6m in a series A round.
Hugh Brady, vice-chancellor and president of Bristol University, said: “This fund will catalyse the university’s creation of – and Setsquared’s support for – exciting, technology-based companies by enabling individuals to invest alongside institutional investors, helping nascent entrepreneurs realise early steps towards a successful company.”
